A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

The Lives of the Cowboys script
Saturday, June 28, 2008

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(PIANO)

INGA: Dear Diary: I am at Tanglewood, in the voice program and I have been given a rehearsal room, which is about the same size as the room I had at the hospital after my nervous breakdown. So I feel right at home. I am supposed to sing the Flower Song from the opera Lakme next week and I went to rehearsal and only the bass section was there. And they just stared at me. Bass players are nice but singing an aria with basses is sort of like going out on a date in a dump truck. So I cried and they got me a piano player. His name is Ramon and he's gorgeous. I'm in love.

(PIANO)

INGA: Dear Diary: Ramon is so amazing. We work so well together it's like we're the same person. It's like we're sharing the same heartbeat. It's like-well, I don't want to say what it's like in case someone ever finds this diary. And guess what? He used to play "The Wind Beneath My Wings" at funerals which is so crazy because I used to sing that at weddings.

(PIANO)

INGA: I asked the director when I might get to work with a full orchestra and he said, "When you're ready." What does that mean? He was looking at the red mark on my neck and I don't care. I need passion to ignite my music and Ramon gives me that. I just lie on the bed and I listen to the recording of us practicing together that I made on my cell phone. It's so beautiful. And then today he gave me a present, a heart locket with a piano on one side and a mouth on the other.

(PIANO AND INGA VOCAL)

Do you realize that you're my pianist?
You play well in almost every key
I can go higher than the altos
'Cause you are the wind that helps me sing.

INGA: Dear Diary-Ramon came to my window tonight and he brought a portable keyboard. He is the sweetest man I've ever known. He played "Besame Mucho" out there with the mosquitoes and I sang and then I went out and we kissed. I looked him up on Facebook. He's 32 years old and still living at home in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Maybe he's just so totally devoted to his craft he can't have a life right now. I don't know. A bass player came to say hi and I saw his enormous hands and I got scared and I locked myself in the bathroom. He went away eventually, but it took about 3 hours.

(PIANO)

INGA: Tonight I sing the Flower Aria from Lakme. The orchestra never got the parts so it's just me and the guys in the bass section. And Ramon. In my heart, I am dedicating my performance to him. I'm still in love but I don't know what's going to happen. Maybe I'll marry him and he'll get a church job in Grand Forks and I'll wait on tables at Big Top Truck Stop while we send audition tapes to New York. Maybe we'll open our own camp for talented teenagers with behavior issues. I can't think about that now. I just have to sing what I have to sing.

(FLOWER ARIA FROM LAKME)